Sculpt the mark of the times for the millennium "Chinese Red"
——Interview with Wu Bingliang, the first "light industry big country craftsman" and contemporary traditional furniture design master
□ Reporter Lu Jun
Wood is forged – a wonderful intersection in the long river of time
On the last day of 1974, Mr. Wang Shixiang, a scholar and cultural relics expert who was over the age of flower armor, donated 71 cultural relics, including furniture, to the Palace Museum. This year, Wu Bingliang, who had just turned 21, was an unknown little carpenter in the distant Lingnan of Guangdong. At that time, Wu Bingliang, who was wearing ripped jeans and working more than ten hours a day, should not have imagined that more than 40 years later, the 22 sets of Qing-style furniture designed by him were also collected by the Palace Museum and placed in the reception hall of the main building of Baoyun Building, becoming an important symbol of traditional Chinese culture in the foreign affairs activities of national leaders.
In the early 1980s, Wang Shixiang's "Ming-style Furniture Appreciation" and "Ming-style Furniture Research" and other related works were published and distributed, which set off a wave of collection and acquisition of furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties around the world. At that time, Wu Bingliang, who followed this upsurge to collect old furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties across the country, probably did not expect that more than 20 years later, the "Appreciation of Wu Bingliang's Works" edited by him once became the "textbook" of the industry, and the upcoming "Wu Bingliang Works: The Beauty of Hainan Huanghuali" will also be sought after.
Also in the 1980s, Wu Bingliang, who came to Beijing to search for old furniture, became acquainted with Chen Zengbi, who studied under the famous architect Liang Sicheng and Chen Zengbi, who was then a professor at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (now the School of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University), and became a friend who hated each other.
According to Chen Feng, the son of Chen Zengbi, "My father greatly appreciated and highly praised the Huanghuali furniture designed and produced by Mr. Wu, believing that it had reached the level of first-class equipment in the industry. Because of this, my father collected many of Mr. Wu's works. To this day, in Chen Feng's studio, you can still see the furniture such as the Huanghuali piano table, the rounded corner cabinet, and the melon prismatic drum stool designed and produced by Wu Bingliang.
Since the 1970s, in the long river of more than 40 years, from a small carpenter has become more and more sophisticated into a "contemporary traditional furniture design master", "light industry big country craftsman", "Lingnan Luban", "Chinese art and art master", wu Bingliang, vice president of the China Arts and Crafts Association and executive chairman of the traditional furniture professional committee of the China Furniture Association, and a generation of masters Wang Shixiang and Chen Zengbi, through the barriers of time and space, with wood, resulting in a wonderful and beautiful intersection.
Wu Bingliang himself also admitted that the continuous improvement of his level of instrument making had a certain relationship with the academic research and collection of writings by Wang Shixiang and Chen Zengbi in that year.
Huanghuali Art Museum - the glory and dream of the times
Starting from the research results of his predecessors, Wu Bingliang immersed himself in the restoration, design and innovation of traditional Chinese furniture, and turned his achievements into a city pool - Wu Bingliang Huanghuali Art Museum. In the words of Wu Bingliang: "This museum took 5 years to build, in fact, it took me 40 years to build it." I put 40 years into it. ”
On November 28, 2018, Wu Bingliang Huanghuali Art Museum was officially unveiled, in which the zigzag design of the collection shows and introduces the Huanghuali furniture from the origin of Chinese furniture to the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China; from materials, tools to production processes; to Wu Bingliang's early Huanghuali ancient works and later improvements and innovations. The most eye-catching is the more than 1,300 huanghuali and small-leaf rosewood series furniture treasures designed and produced by Wu Bingliang. Immersed in it, it is like walking into a treasure room, every artifact is worth appreciating, and every detail is interesting.
Located in the "professional town of traditional Chinese furniture" - Wu Bingliang Huanghuali Art Museum in Dajiang Town, Taishan, Guangdong Province, has become a shining business card of the place.
"Covering an area of 36,000 square meters, this Huanghuali Art Museum is unique and unique in the industry, and is the glory and dream of the times." Industry insiders commented, "It is a narrative and a feast. ”
"Wu Bingliang, the first master of art in the Chinese art industry selected by the China Arts and Crafts Association, is full of insight into the shape, structure and cultural connotation of Ming and Qing furniture. At the same time, Wu Bingliang treats people with great sincerity, virtue and art, and is a preacher of the spirit of a respected craftsman, embodying the spirit of craftsmanship in a big country and the standard of outstanding artists. Zhou Zhengsheng, president of the China Arts and Crafts Association, commented.
Xu Xiangnan, chairman of the China Furniture Association, said, "Master Wu Bingliang is the inheritor of contemporary Traditional Chinese furniture art and the promoter of the spirit of craftsmen in a big country. He focused on the collection, research, design and production of Ming and Qing dynasty furniture, and formed the theory of furniture appreciation and design and production based on the principle of 'type, art, material and rhyme', which has been widely recognized and vigorously respected by people. He imitates, transforms and innovates the design of Ming and Qing art furniture, with deep charm and beautiful material art, which is affirmed and appreciated by senior experts, scholars and collectors at home and abroad, and the Wu's Xinglong brand he created has become an excellent brand and industry model in China's traditional furniture industry. ”
The beauty of wood art - millennium mahogany highlights the style of the times
Why are the paintings of Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi and Fu Baoshi expensive? What people can agree on is that it is not that the paper they use is expensive or high-grade, but that the artistic accomplishment of the work is high. The same is true of furniture, no matter what the material, as long as the artistic level is high, it is valuable. As the saying goes, "Jade is not thoughtful, it is not a tool." ”
Although the huanghuali is made of good materials, Wu Bingliang proposed that the traditional furniture evaluation and design and production guidance theory should be based on the principles of "type", "art", "material" and "rhyme", not "only material theory", but to create works with "deep charm and beautiful material art".
At the same time, what characteristics will traditional furniture show the style of the times and mark the greatness of the times? Can you continue to write the songs of the prosperous world and the future generations?
"As far as furniture design is concerned, with the changes in the environment of the times, the living habits and aesthetic orientation of modern people have been different from those of ancient times. We should respect these differences. This requires us to blend tradition with innovation. To do this well, we must temper our dialectical vision and superb aesthetic ability. For the essence of tradition, we naturally have to understand and carry forward, and for the shortcomings in tradition, we need to use what we have learned to improve, only in this way can we create good works that have both traditional cultural heritage and modern sense. "For inheritance and innovation, Wu Bingliang has his own unique and sharp views.
On March 24, 2022, Wu Bingliang will bring the national treasure Huanghuali series of furniture to participate in the China Arts and Crafts Expo hosted by the Light Industry Federation and held at the Nanjing International Expo Center, staging a mahogany cultural exchange event and a visual feast of rare works for the appearance of the industry.
"In this great era of ushering in the revival of Chinese civilization again, Wu's Xinglongdang, with the highest specifications, the most gold content, the most precious and the most shocking works, expressed the highest respect, gratitude and blessings to the party and the times, and also delivered satisfactory answers to the development of traditional furniture for the times, the country and the people through the series of works accumulated over the years." Wu Bingliang said.
At that time, people can personally visit the scene to see how Wu Bingliang, a great craftsman of the country, used a large pen like rafters to smear the mark of the times in the thousand-year-old mahogany that traversed The Chinese civilization, inheriting the millennium "Chinese red".